Books

Paul Quarrie Introduced by Henry Woudhuysen

Lincoln College Lecture: A life in Manuscripts, Books and Libraries
Lincoln College 2:00pm Fri 25 Friday, 25 March 2022 See this event
Rebecca Abrams

Jewish Treasures from Oxford Libraries CANCELLED
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 27 Sunday, 27 March 2022 See this event
Dennis Duncan

Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure
Bodleian: Divinity School 6:00pm Tue 29 Tuesday, 29 March 2022 See this event
Ian McEwan, Karen Leeder and Laurence Laluyaux Introduced by Richard Ovenden

The Gift of Translation CANCELLED
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Emma Smith

Portable Magic: The History of our Long Love Affair with Books
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Jonathan Brent Interviewed by Richard Ovenden

The Jewish Archives of Lithuania
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event

Festival information:

The Oxford Literary Festival has in my mind become the leading literary festival of the year. The organisation, the roster of speakers, the ambience and the sheer quality of it all is superb. May it now go from strength to strength each year stretching its ambition more and more. I believe it will.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories.

The Oxford festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there.

Every literary festival stays in an author’s mind for slightly individual reasons. I shall remember the Oxford festival for: - the size of the audience: at the top end of the range - their intelligence – this makes a huge difference for a speaker. In the Oxford audience I encountered many experts in the field my book covered and even one of the ambassadors I’d quoted - the beauty and the grace of the place itself – incomparable - the willingness of my hearers to buy books afterwards; I’ve never sold more.

I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven.

A stimulating and rewarding on-stage conversation; a lively informed and tolerant audience; privileged access to the great treasures of the Bodleian, and finally, wonderfully interesting dinner companions to help me conclude the best day I have enjoyed at any festival – anywhere.

I came away buzzing and reassured that we still have in this century a wide ranging community fascinated not just by famous authors (I’ve rarely seen so many concentrated in one place) but by challenging ideas and questions.